


A good game

by 1011686



Category: Morbit
Genre: Afterlife, Dehumanization, Ethical Questions, Video Game Community, Violence, tcp
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-18
Updated: 2020-07-18
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:42:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25357165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/1011686/pseuds/1011686
Summary: Fairbit chats with a friend about a replica of the fun game he likes playing.
Kudos: 1





	A good game

Kaje: Hey, you see the news?  
Fairbit: What

Fairbit tabbed away from the session stream and opened a browser as he typed the short reply, navigating quickly to one of the main TCP hubs he frequented. He scrolled through the recent threads and announcements, trying to find out what his friend was talking about.

Kaje: It’s on the Starleo site  
Kaje: New update on the video game

He found the page, and absorbed it's contents, pausing for a few moments before responding.

Fairbit: They’re really going ahead with it?  
Kaje: Yep, seems so  
Fairbit: Geeze  
Kaje: You gonna play it when it comes out?  
Fairbit: I mean if it really simulates the real thing as much as theyre saying then I guess I would  
Fairbit: It really seems impossible to me though  
Fairbit: You know people have made TCP games before? I played flash games of it when I was at school  
Fairbit: None of them are actually anything like playing TCP though  
Kaje: Wasn’t there that one made by a god that was pretty great?  
Fairbit: Yeah but I think it was actually a bootleg? Piggybacked off the original’s coding or something. Hard to find stuff out about it, only people who know the details were gods and theyre not easy to talk to.  
Kaje: I think Starleo’s really going to do it though.  
Kaje: I heard they’ve got AIs helping them out.  
Fairbit: Constructs?  
Kaje: Digital, ones that do programming for a living.  
Fairbit: Nice. How are they going to do the actual tcps though? Just giving them a bunch of behaviour patterns and algorithms won’t work  
Kaje: Well, this is very speculative, but I think the AIs will be active in the sessions. Like, helping control the tcps and creatures, make them more flexible, editing their code on the fly  
Fairbit: Eh, that’s cool, i guess.  
Kaje: Not interested?  
Fairbit: Well, there’s no way the AI is going to convincingly fight itself. Like if it's controlling two hostile tcps that meet, it can’t exactly hide its plans from itself right? It would have to pretend everything. Doubt that would really be that fun.  
Kaje: Idk, I think you’re too pessimistic. Haven’t you ever watched a play? Actors can be really good at their jobs sometimes. Besides, wouldn’t it be better for some parts to be pretend?

Fairbit sat back. He didn’t respond. He was fairly certain Kaje was baiting him with that last line. They acted cool and upbeat, but they had a mischievous streak, and liked a bit of trolling sometimes. It was rather annoying, Fairbit knew Kaje didn’t actually care one way or the other about the issue, but he did. He was a stubborn person, he had to admit, and he didn’t like backing down from an argument. He should’ve just ignored Kaje’s quip, but too much time had passed for him to act like it was nothing now, and he felt an awkward reluctance to talk further. He closed the chat box and tried to ignore the hanging feeling of a conversation left unfinished.

He returned to the session he’d been watching. One aggressor, three defenders, one pacifist. It was getting pretty close to the end now. The aggressor only had two tcps left, though they’d managed to put up a good fight up to that point, costing the other teams several of their own tcps through clever use of the terrain. He’d have to keep the strategy in mind next time he played in a tunnel network. The pacifist player had mostly managed to stay out of the fighting, though they’d done some interesting experimentation with their own abstract tcps as well, getting them to work together in a surprising way. He scribbled down a few notes on ability usage.

He switched over to the trio of tcp teams, just in time to see the second-last of the aggressor’s tcps being held down by three others. It was large, and even with their numbers it seemed to be taking them quite a lot of effort to keep it restrained. It continued struggling and snapping at them, attempting to skewer them with its sharp horn even as another tcp slowly stepped over its body, holding a large sword, and brought it down on the fierce tcp’s neck. It quickly stopped moving, it's fluid pouring from the cut and staining the ground and feet of the other tcps.

But he knew it hadn’t actually died, of course. It had been transported to that tcp paradise place. It was obvious, really, if you just thought about it. If you were going to make a game that involved creating, and then possibly ending, the lives of real, sapient entities, the least you could do was provide them with an afterlife. The kill command worked as a soul marker or something like that, tagging tcps for possible extraction. Of course, you couldn’t exactly tell anyone this, otherwise it would ruin the game. People wouldn’t take it seriously if they knew their tcps weren’t actually in any danger. Still, Fairbit had figured it out. The creator of TCP was a bit… well, he had a few problems, but he seemed like he tried to be good, in general, and Fairbit was confident his speculation was correct, in fact he was certain.

And it didn’t hurt that TCP was possibly the best game that had ever existed, either. It was really good.

So sure, he would play some simulated copy of it, if it was good enough, and it was an admirable goal to recreate it. But he sure as hell didn’t want to be guilted into doing so. He just wanted to play the game. That was all. 


End file.
